Current World Environment

From Conservation to Sustainability: A Bibliometric Mapping of Ecotourism and Nature-Based Tourism Research

Madhu Kumari¹ , Bhushan Singh² , Suneel Kumar³ , Nisha Devi⁴ and Geetanjali Sageena⁵ ^*

¹ Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Chandigarh University, Chandigarh, Panjab India

² Department of Commerce, Central University of Haryana, Mahendragarh, Haryana India

³ Department of Commerce, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

⁴ Department of Commerce, Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

⁵ Division of Human Resource Development, Department of Health Research (DHR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India

Corresponding author Email: geetanjalisagena@gmail.com

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.21.1.12

Abstract

This study’s primary goal is to examine published research on nature-based tourism using established inclusion criteria and a holistic bibliometric approach. A total of 1,200 records were retrieved from the Scopus database based on predefined criteria using the keyword “nature-based tourism.”The VOSviewer application was utilized in order to perform bibliometric analysis on the data as it was collectedhere is a consistent and sustained increase in the number of publications that are about nature-based tourism, which indicates that there is an increase in the amount of scholarly interest in this field. There is also an expectation that the number of publications will continue to rise in the years to come. Tsung Hung Lee was found to be the author who was cited the most frequently, while Peter Fredman was discovered to be the author who had the most prolific output on this topic. It is clear that the Journal of Sustainable Tourism plays a crucial part in advancing research on nature-based tourism because it contains the greatest number of publications.Geographically speaking, the United States of America showed the highest number of publications which is an indication of the country's strong research setup in this particular field. It came to light that the University of Johannesburg tops the list of the most significant contributors, among the institutes, in terms of the number of its publications, which means that it has substantially prioritized nature-based tourism studies in its academic programs. Knowing which words are mostly used the analysis of keywords showed that nature-based tourism (621) was the term most frequently used, the second was ecotourism (435), and the third tourism (184), with tourism development (165), and protected area (157) continuing the list, thus reflecting the focus of the research that has been done so far as being more aligned with topics such as sustainability and conservation, related issues. In general, the authors' study adds to the current body of literature by presenting a clear and systematized account of the research trends, major contributors, and the most recurring themes of nature-based tourism." The study exclusively focuses on bibliometric analysis and therefore it can only be a good descriptive basis for empirical and theoretical studies in the future. However, further research can be conducted to look at the practical and policy, oriented implications more deeply."

Keywords

Bibliometric Analysis; Ecotourism; Nature-Based Tourism; Sustainability; Research Trends; VOSviewer

Copy the following to cite this article:

Kumari M, Singh B, Kumar S, Devi N, Sageena G. From Conservation to Sustainability: A Bibliometric Mapping of Ecotourism and Nature-Based Tourism Research. Curr World Environ 2026;21(1). DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.21.1.12

Copy the following to cite this URL:

Kumari M, Singh B, Kumar S, Devi N, Sageena G. From Conservation to Sustainability: A Bibliometric Mapping of Ecotourism and Nature-Based Tourism Research. Curr World Environ 2026;21(1).

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